Jack Nicklaus and his son Gary watch a tee shot by Aaron Baddeley during practice for this week’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio on Tuesday, May 29, 2001. Father and son will be playing in the tournament of which Jack is the founder and host.

The golf prodigy was labeled as “Heir to the Bear” because Jack Nicklaus had declared that the teenager, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was barely 16, eventually would break all his records for major championships.

The young Floridian arrived in Denver on Aug. 19, 1990, with the concentrated objective of winning the U.S. Amateur at historic Cherry Hills Country Club and matching Nicklaus’ feat of finishing first, as a 19-year-old, in the Amateur at The Broadmoor.

Oddly enough, Jack was playing that same Sunday in The International at Castle Pines Golf Club.

“Right after I got here,” the former wonder boy told me the other day, “I was rushed to Swedish Medical Center. They thought I’d suffered a heart attack. I couldn’t believe it. I was 21 and in perfect health. Turned out, I was diagnosed with pericarditis (inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart). The symptoms were the same as a heart attack. I never got to play even one round at Cherry Hills. I spent the week in the hospital.”

He was visited daily at Swedish by Jack Nicklaus. On Thursday, 22 years later, he finally got to play a practice round at Cherry Hills.

Gary Nicklaus, now 43, will compete in the United States Amateur Championship that begins Monday. And his dad — The Jack Nicklaus — will be back to watch him at Cherry Hills, where Jack experienced his own significant moments of anguish and splendor. Winning the Amateur is Gary’s ultimate fantasy. “It’d be great because I’d automatically qualify for the Masters and the British Open. I’ve never played in either. And it’s Cherry Hills. And my dad.”

In the dining room at Cherry Hills, Nicklaus unhesitatingly discussed the promise, performances and pleasures, the disappointments, distress and descent, the letdowns and comebacks of his life in and around golf. The blond, 5-foot-10, 180-pound Nicklaus, who possesses the same steely eyes as his legendary father, is an eerie clone.

In fact, Gary, one of four Nicklaus sons, was supposed to ascend to the golf throne. Nicklaus the Younger, not Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, would be the next Nicklaus the Elder.

A young Phil actually would win that 1990 Amateur at Cherry Hills. Tiger would prevail in 1994, ’95 and ’96 — and he chases Nicklaus’ magical marks in the majors.

But, in 1985, Gary was the subject of the Sports Illustrated centerpiece. He consistently outdrove “The Golden Bear” and was given the nickname “The Gorilla.” At 15, Gary beat Jack (70-71). He won scores of junior and amateur tournaments and went off to Ohio State, his father’s alma mater.

In 1991 Gary turned pro, but he failed in the PGA qualifying tournament eight consecutive times, and had to scramble in Europe and the Far East and on mini-tours near his home. The ninth year in “Q school,” Gary shot 63 in the final round and finally made The Show. In the rain-shortened BellSouth Tournament in 2000, Nicklaus and Mickelson tied. On the first playoff hole, Nicklaus’ approach hit at the lip of the bunker and buried, and he lost.

It was his only top-25 finish in three years, and he lost his Tour card. “I grinded through 96 tournaments trying to stay out there. If I could do it over, I’d play fewer tournaments and pick my spots better.” He tried the junior varsity tour, then realized he didn’t want to play any more.

“It wasn’t fun,” he said.

So Gary joined the Nicklaus family course design and apparel companies as vice chairman, decided he wanted to play “for fun” and was granted a return to amateur status in 2007. Last month, Gary Nicklaus, runner-up in local qualifying, earned a spot with 311 others in the U.S. Amateur in Colorado, where the Nicklauses annually spend Christmas at their home in the mountains.

“These kids are incredible,” Gary said. “They hit the ball forever. I can’t drive it as far, but I hope my short game, my putter, my … uh … maturity will make a difference.”

And perhaps his genes.

After Jack won the first of his two Amateurs, he was eligible for the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. That tournament would become the most famous in Open history — the perfect storm of golf with Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus all competing. Both Hogan and Nicklaus, paired in the final round, were atop the field at one point on the final day, but Palmer remarkable’s rally from seven strokes behind over the final 18 holes prevailed.

During Gary’s practice session Thursday, Cherry Hills pro John Ogden pointed out where Jack missed a short putt on No. 13 to lose the lead and, in the end, the tournament, and where Hogan’s last effort drowned in the moat on No. 17.

Gary absorbed it all.

For the final question, I asked simply: “What went wrong?”

“In high school I discovered fishing, good times and girls. When golf wasn’t going so good for me, my dad said, ‘Well, son, maybe you can become known as the best fisherman in Wellington County.’ “

And, after all those years, Gary Nicklaus also can become known as the winner of the 2012 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tyreek Hill didn’t know what to do when he started hearing thousands of people in Arrowhead Stadium chanting his name, even as he stood all alone on the frozen turf waiting for the punt.